Gray Valley

f o u r t y - t w o

"I HAD NO IDEA." Anna stared at me. "I'm so sorry, Weslyn. I just assumed that you fought about something that didn't matter."

For almost a minute, everyone wss silent, still contemplating what I had told them about the Soulmate Curse.

"But, it doesn't really matter, does it?" Bryan asked. "It's not as if Weslyn has feelings for him or anything. The curse is just that she has two potential soulmates. Ultimately, she has to make a decision. She will love one of you more... And Liam, there's no way it wouldn't be you."

"Bryan's right, Liam," Martyn agreed. "She's known... No, loved you, since before she could remember. But she didn't even know that Blayze existed until less than two weeks ago."

"That's just it, isn't it?" Liam gritted out. "Since before she could remember... For the past 8 years, she was practically a memory loss patient. 17 years is a miscalculation... In reality, it's been one month; just one month."

"You're being too hard on her, Liam," West told him. "It wasn't her fault that she couldn't remember... That was all on me."

"Maybe, it wasn't her fault, West. But it is her fault that this guy is here," he glared at Blayze's unconscious body. "It's her fault for having feelings for more than one person at once."

"It's not that easy for her," my brother told him. "The Soulmate Curse... It's like having your heart torn in half. "

"Do you think it's easy for me?" Liam demanded. "I'm not movie character... How long does the guy usually love a girl with amnesia? Two years? Five? I've loved her for 17 entire years... And for eight of those years, she couldn't even remember my existence. How do you think it feels, West? How do you think it feels to finally get her back, only to be immediately taken im by another guy?" He grabbed my brother by the shirt. "Do you have any idea how hard this is for me?"

"I get it, but-"

"STOP IT!" I yelled. "For the love of Luna... Both of you just stop!" Liam recoiled at my icy stare, releasing West from his grip. "I've had enough. I hate being spoken about as if I'm not here."

"Weslyn, it's not like that..." West trailed off. "It's just-"

"I am your Alpha." I could feel a sharp burn at my neck, as my mark scorched. "You will obey me." At once, they all kneeled down before me, bowing their heads in submission.

"Of c-course, Alpha." Anna stuttered, her face pale with fear. The look on her face was enough for my anger to disappear.

"It's Weslyn to you," I answered gently. A smile appeared on her face. "I don't know what got into me. I just got so..."

"Being an Alpha is a lot more pressure than you realise," West explained to me. "When you add in the anger management issues that all Werewolves have, you get angry really quickly." He sighed. "I had trouble keeping down my anger when I was Alpha, so did Lucian Bronze... Even our father had a short temper."

"It's an Alpha thing..." I took a deep breath to compose myself, then turned to Liam. "You... Tell me what you want."

He stared up at me defiantly, his teeth clenched tightly. I felt my rage resurface, but suppressed it. There was no way I was going to lose to my own emotions.

"Stand up," I ordered. He followed my command, but continued to stay obstinately silent. "I was talking to you... Answer me at once!"

He failed to speak. Instead, I could sense the hatred within him that he tried so hard to conceal. Hatred... Hatred towards me.

"Liam..." I murmured.

I didn't know if I could control my emotions. Ever since I became a Gray Wolf, everything was enhanced. It was as if I never I had a neutral. My emotions went from anger to grief, within seconds. I felt my eyes well up, as my chest clenched up in pain.

"You want to know to know what I want?" he asked, his voice dangerously low.

I nodded, not daring to speak.

"I want you to choose, Weslyn. If you truly love me, then break his bond."

"How do I do that?" Was it what West had tried on us before he changed? Did I have to summon Luna?

"It's simple," he answered coldly. "Humans and Werewolves can't be Soulmates. So all you have to do... Is turn him back."

"But turning him back into a human..." I was heartless.

It was Liam, himself, who had told me that changing a Brown Wolf back had painful side effects. If I turned Blayze back, he would be driven insane and stripped of his memories... There was no way I could selfishly hurt him in that way.

"I can't."

"I knew it," he muttered. "I knew you wouldn't do it." He laughed cruelly. "Don't worry, I asked you, knowing that you wouldn't agree."

It wasn't him. It wasn't Liam. The Liam I knew, would never be so cruel.

"You don't have to break your bond with him," he repeated. "You just have to break mine."